Larry Elder’s ‘Uncle Tom’: The little movie that could By Andrea Widburg *****
Did you know that there’s a documentary called Uncle Tom that IMDB ranks as one of America’s top documentaries? Released only six weeks ago, it’s currently the sixth-highest rated documentary on IMDB, with over 2,000 viewers giving it an extraordinary 9.5-star rating. The movie also doubled Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine opening box office revenue. Nevertheless, not a single mainstream news or entertainment media film critic has acknowledged it. I spoke with Mr. Elder to learn more about the movie and the media’s passive-aggressive efforts to ignore it into extinction.
One would think that, when a nationally-known radio and TV personality, who is also a best-selling author and columnist, writes and produces a documentary about blacks in America, the media would be all over it. That doesn’t happen, though, if he challenges the mainstream narrative that the Democrat party is American blacks’ only friend.
Uncle Tom’s use of historical footage, contemporary political events, and interviews with black conservatives both well known and unknown exposes viewers to the reality that’s unacceptable to the monolithic Democrat media: Since 1856, Republican Party policies allowed American blacks to thrive, while Democrat party policies consistently harmed them.
It is one of the best documentaries I’ve seen, and I can’t recommend it highly enough – but I’m already conservative. Mr. Elder’s problem is that the media’s conspiracy of silence makes it hard to reach non-conservatives.
“I’ve been interviewed by Swedish media,” he says, “by Australian media, by the BBC, by South Korean media about Uncle Tom, but I can’t get arrested here in this country.”
Currently, the only newspaper that’s mentioned Uncle Tom is the Chicago Tribune, and that was because Jack Kass, a political pundit, not a film critic, wrote about it. Word of mouth and social media, however, are making a difference.
“Our movie — which was done on a shoestring budget — the only advertising was through social media for the first several days, anyway,” Mr. Elder explained. “And now I advertise a little bit on Salem Radio, but that is it. No TV, no nothing. And a lot of the people in the film, as you know, have their own social media followings and so they tweeted it out. And so it got kind of an underground distribution and media.”
Mr. Elder says being aggressively ignored this way is “outrageous” and even surprising. “I’ve complained about media bias, out of all the years I’ve said that we — meaning conservatives — get shut out of the mainstream media, I really kind of thought this story would have even caused the L.A. Times, the New York Times, you know, the various major morning shows, to call me and say, ‘You know, [faux-embarrassed throat clearing] this is a story.’ But nothing!”
I suggested that he was getting the Thomas Sowell treatment. The media ignore Dr. Sowell entirely because his conclusions are indisputable. Mr. Elder said that he asked Dr. Sowell about the media’s response when he slays one of their sacred cows. Dr. Sowell replied, “Well, people hold on to the table, they grit their teeth, and they just bear it for the next several days until the train goes by. And then it’s as if I never wrote it.”
While the media critics may be ignoring the movie, the public isn’t. Indeed, although the media’s silence results in a more conservative audience, word of mouth is working. Mr. Elder told me to check out the reviews at IMDB.
“Some of the self-admitted liberals are saying things like what I’ve just now told you. ‘Man, I didn’t realize this. I had no idea what the welfare state has done to the black family. I had no idea at one time, at least in some parts of the country, the percentage of black kids raised in a nuclear family equaled if not exceeded the percentage of white kids raised in nuclear families. I had no idea.’”
Mr. Elder’s right: “[T]his documentary was the finalization of my red pill moment.” “A MASSIVE EYE OPENER!” “This is one of, if not the most important film of the 21st century.” “I feel like I just woke up.” “This is the true black history of our people.”
“I’m arrogant enough,” Mr. Elder told me, “to believe, the movie is good enough that if enough people saw it, maybe, just maybe, some of the temperature might be lowered a little bit in our country right now.”
He’s not arrogant. He’s right. The movie is so good it could shift the dominant paradigm in America, the one saying that American blacks are helpless without the Democrat party. No wonder the media are ignoring it, something that won’t change. It’s therefore up to us to get the word out and give this dazzling documentary the audience it deserves.
Image: YouTube screengrab
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